Action Index

The action index is a cache of proven web actions on real websites, like searching jobs on Walmart or finding products on Amazon. Anchor has already worked out how to do each one, so the agent doesn’t have to rediscover it on every run. When your agent lands on a site with cached actions, it can finish a whole step, such as “search with these filters”, in a single call. Without the index, it clicks through the page one element at a time. You can use it in two ways:

Inside a web task: set use_action_index_tools: true on Perform Web Task and the agent picks the right action itself.
Directly: look up the actions for a site and run one by name, with no AI agent involved.

Benefits

Higher success rate

Cached actions already know how a site’s search, filters, and pagination work, so the agent stops getting lost on complex pages.

Fewer tokens

One action replaces a long loop of screenshots, clicks, and retries, so each task costs less.

Faster results

Fewer steps per task and fewer failed runs to repeat.

Smaller models, top results

Open and low-cost models gain the most, so you can switch to a cheaper model without losing accuracy.

Use the index in a web task

Set use_action_index_tools to true. The agent sees only the actions for the domain it is on, and falls back to normal browsing for everything else.

import { client } from 'anchorbrowser';

client.setConfig({ auth: () => process.env.ANCHOR_API_KEY });

const { data: response } = await client.post({
  url: '/v1/tools/perform-web-task',
  body: {
    url: 'https://cookpad.com/',
    prompt: 'Find recipes for chocolate chip cookies without nuts and list the first five titles.',
    agent: 'browser-use',
    use_action_index_tools: true,
  },
});

console.log(response.data.result);
// Names of the cached actions the agent ran
console.log(response.data.action_index_tools_used);

import os
from anchorbrowser import Anchorbrowser

anchor_client = Anchorbrowser(api_key=os.getenv('ANCHOR_API_KEY'))

response = anchor_client.post(
    '/v1/tools/perform-web-task',
    body={
        'url': 'https://cookpad.com/',
        'prompt': 'Find recipes for chocolate chip cookies without nuts and list the first five titles.',
        'agent': 'browser-use',
        'use_action_index_tools': True,
    },
    cast_to=object,
)

print(response['data']['result'])
# Names of the cached actions the agent ran
print(response['data'].get('action_index_tools_used'))

action_index_tools_used appears only when the agent ran at least one action. Add ?includeTokens=true to the URL to also get token usage and compare runs with and without the index.

When you omit use_action_index_tools, it defaults to true on free plans and false on paid plans. An explicit true or false always wins. It works with every agent except Jev, which accepts the flag and ignores it.

Run an action directly

Use the index without an agent when you already know what you want to do on a site.

Find actions for a domain

GET /v1/actions-index/search returns the active actions for a domain, with their input and output schemas.

const { data: actions } = await client.get({
  url: '/v1/actions-index/search',
  query: { domain: 'cookpad.com' },
});

for (const action of actions) {
  console.log(action.name, '-', action.description);
  console.log(action.inputSchema);
}

actions = anchor_client.get('/v1/actions-index/search?domain=cookpad.com', cast_to=object)

for action in actions:
    print(action['name'], '-', action['description'])
    print(action['inputSchema'])

An empty list means the domain has no actions yet. Use Perform Web Task for that site instead.

Execute the action

POST /v1/actions-index/by-name/{name}/execute runs the cached action in an Anchor browser. Pass input that matches the action’s inputSchema.

const { data: run } = await client.post({
  url: '/v1/actions-index/by-name/cookpad-search-recipes/execute',
  body: {
    input: {
      search_query: 'chocolate chip cookies',
      excluded_keywords: 'nuts',
      country_code: 'us',
      max_results: 5,
    },
  },
});

console.log(run.success, run.output);
console.log('Session:', run.sessionId);

run = anchor_client.post(
    '/v1/actions-index/by-name/cookpad-search-recipes/execute',
    body={
        'input': {
            'search_query': 'chocolate chip cookies',
            'excluded_keywords': 'nuts',
            'country_code': 'us',
            'max_results': 5,
        },
    },
    cast_to=object,
)

print(run['success'], run['output'])
print('Session:', run['sessionId'])

Response

{
  "name": "cookpad-search-recipes",
  "sessionId": "25cc5a42-2024-4214-87fd-5612fb693309",
  "success": true,
  "output": {
    "recipe_titles": "[\"Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies\", \"Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies\", ...]"
  }
}

Without a sessionId, Anchor creates a browser at the action’s domain and returns its id. The session closes after two idle minutes, so you can chain more actions or a web task on it right away.

Actions that need a signed-in account

Actions with authRequired: true must run in a session that is already signed in. Create the session with an identity and pass its id:

const { data: run } = await client.post({
  url: `/v1/actions-index/by-name/${actionName}/execute`,
  body: { sessionId, input: { /* fields from inputSchema */ } },
});

run = anchor_client.post(
    f'/v1/actions-index/by-name/{action_name}/execute',
    body={'sessionId': session_id, 'input': {}},  # fields from inputSchema
    cast_to=object,
)

API reference

Endpoint	What it does
`GET /v1/actions-index/search?domain=`	Active actions for a domain, plus actions that work on any site
`GET /v1/actions-index/by-name/{name}`	One action by name
`POST /v1/actions-index/by-name/{name}/execute`	Runs an action. Body: `input`, optional `sessionId`
`GET /v1/actions-index/`	All actions. Filters: `status`, `domain`, `authRequired`

Use it from MCP

The hosted MCP servers expose the same index as search_action_index, get_action_index, and execute_action_index tools. /v1/mcp/actions/{domain} turns every action for a site into its own tool.

Introduction

Platform

Integrations

Account

Benefits

Higher success rate

Fewer tokens

Faster results

Smaller models, top results

Use the index in a web task

Run an action directly

Actions that need a signed-in account

API reference

Use it from MCP

​Benefits

Higher success rate

Fewer tokens

Faster results

Smaller models, top results

​Use the index in a web task

​Run an action directly

​Actions that need a signed-in account

​API reference

​Use it from MCP

Benefits

Use the index in a web task

Run an action directly

Actions that need a signed-in account

API reference

Use it from MCP